"You crazy children, you will take cold! Put the window down at once."
"Oh, Auntie, it was such fun! Ikey was so surprised!" they cried.
"I should imagine so," severely.
"You needn't pretend to look cross, Aunt Zélie, for you just can't," laughed Carl.
"Now for our stockings!" cried Bess, and there was a rush for the nursery.
Such laughing, such squeals of delight, such cries of admiration, as were to be heard there for the next half hour!
Carie in her long night-gown pranced wildly around a wonderful white bear, which moved its head and growled in a most natural manner when Carl wound it up. Helen hugged in one arm the beautiful doll Cousin Helen had dressed for her, while she dived into the toe of her stocking. Bess and Louise sat on their new sled and turned the pages of a story-book. Carie brought matters to a climax by backing into her bath-tub, which Aunt Sukey had just brought in and placed by the fire. She was rescued, dripping and somewhat aggrieved, amid great laughter. Such an every-day matter as breakfast was hardly worth thinking of, there was so much else in prospect. All the uncles and aunts and cousins were coming to dinner, and after that the tree! There was enough to keep them in a gale of excitement.
Bess and Louise had a plan of their own which no one else knew about, and after breakfast they stole off together.
Going into her little study not long after, Aunt Zélie found them there. Bess stood on a chair holding a vase which she had just filled with white roses; Louise stood beside her with some others in her hand.
"Oh, Auntie!" they both exclaimed, "we didn't want you to come till it was all done."